Home For Christmas
by Mall Rat Matt
Summary: In the wake of Mega's Virus, Tai San returns to the city in search of the Mallrats. Meanwhile, in a remote Techno facility, Jack and Cloe are also on the hunt for their missing friends. Written for Tribe Universe's Secret Santa challenge 2012. AU - Jack didn't return to the city in S5.


Original challenge:

Username: coco_bananana / Dal  
Three - Five characters to appear in your story: Jack, Sasha, Cloe, Tai San  
Couple/s you want in your story: Jack/Cloe; Sasha/Tai San  
Three items you want to be in your story: santa hat, jewel pendant necklace, remote control  
Two lines you want to appear in your story: "That's the point, isn't it? People see but don't actually look; people hear but they don't listen."; "Please tell me you're not spending christmas in your workroom."

* * *

Tai San coughed as she left the mall, and pulled the dust mask back down over her mouth and nose, wincing as the strap tried to tangle itself in her braids and around the mouthpiece of the headset she wore hooked around one ear, in her haste to cover her face. Not that having the mask in place offered much protection either; the material around the filter was already grubby with the same ash that fell around her like snow, making a soft carpet on the street. The fire that had engulfed the hotel and at least two sectors of the city had burned itself out by now, but it took time for everything to settle.

She sighed. This had been a wasted journey. She should have known that the Mallrats wouldn't be here. Even they must have seen that the city was a lost cause now. Still, she had had to know. The doubt would always have been there, otherwise, and doubts like that had a way of nibbling at a person's soul until it was all you ever thought about. What if she had gone to the mall? What if her tribe were still there?

'Are you there?' she asked, adjusting the frequency of her communicator. Slender fingers with blue-painted nails moved delicately on controls she no longer needed to see to be able to work.

Crackling noise and the clumsy thud of fumbling fingers through her earpiece spoke of someone less well-versed in the radio's use on the receiving end. 'Tai San? Is that you?' her companion asked, his soft voice hesitant. 'Yes, I'm here. How did it go at the mall?'

'It's empty,' she replied, surprised at how calmly she could say it. 'Dead, just like the rest of the city.' She thought she caught a faint sigh on the other end. Commiseration? Or could it have been relief? She hated having to use this device; communication was about far more than just words, in her book.

'What now, then?'

She answered that question with silence. What could they do now? She had fled the city, what seemed like a lifetime ago now, for the good of her tribe, after feeling Mega's trap for the Mallrats being woven around her and knowing she was powerless to stop it. Reprogramming, the Technos called it, and she shuddered even to remember the shell of herself she had become then, barely more than a puppet for the tyrant to guide and use as he chose. Somehow she had managed to summon up enough willpower to break free, just long enough to start running, and once she had started she realised just how close to the edge she had come, how close to betraying everything and everyone she cared for. She didn't stop running then for a very long time, not until she was sure Mega's hold over her was broken. Everything she had done since then had been to bring her here, to fight her way back and confront Mega, to rejoin her friends and her family. But now they were gone, and with them, hope.

A shrill piercing noise whistled through the speaker like the screech of some demonic eagle as her companion did…something. Fiddled! 'Tai San? Are you there? Can you…read me?' His tongue tripped over the terminology, his voice barely distinguishable then suddenly deafeningly loud as he pushed and pressed and twiddled at the controls.

'I'm still here!' she cried hastily, holding the speaker away from her ear until the volume returned to normal and the noise disappeared.

'What do we do now?' came the question once more, but this time she had an answer, or at least she hoped she did.

'There might be a place,' she said thoughtfully. She had been there once before, the last time everything had seemed lost, and in the midst of desperation, hope had blossomed, small and fragile. It was the one place she could think of where the spirit of the Mallrats might still be present; a link to her family, however small. It was a slim chance – she was afraid the place had already given up all its secrets – but it was a chance she had to take. She was tired of running, now. It was time to come home. Only, she wasn't sure where home was anymore.

'Are you willing to make another small journey?' she asked hopefully. The jingle of horse harness answered her and she laughed in delight. Sometimes these communicators told you all you needed to know after all.

* * *

The radio on the table was not large, but it was hooked up to all the transmitting power the Technos had been able to offer; and here, in this former military base spread over the plateau of the tallest hill on a remote island – more recently a secluded Techno work camp, and now home to only a dozen or so former captives with nowhere else to go – that was a lot. Even with most of the satellites this place was linked to now redundant, the reception should have been huge! But as Jack slowly and methodically turned the tuning knob all the way in one direction, and then all the way back, all he picked up was a big fat nothing. Nothing at all! Nobody in the whole monumental radius he had worked so hard to make the machine cover was broadcasting a thing. Feeling that same wave of despondency he had in the early days back in the mall, when he had been desperately searching for a signal from the surviving adults he was sure were out there, he shoved the radio across the table sulkily. He instantly regretted it, of course, standing it back up again and giving it an apologetic pat. It wasn't the radio's fault after all; he was just a sore loser. He had never liked failure.

'Please tell me you're not spending Christmas in your workroom,' a voice came from behind him, making him jump. Swivelling around in his chair to face its owner he gave an abashed grin when he saw that it was Cloe. She was trying very hard to give him a serious look, with her arms folded and one foot tapping on the floor, but the way her teeth chewed her bottom lip at one corner of her mouth spoke of suppressed mirth, and under those lowered brows he recognised the warm look in her eyes as fondness. He was no longer surprised by that; he was very fond of her, too. He hadn't expected to be reunited with any of the Mallrats, much less Cloe, when the Technos had captured and brought him here, soon after their invasion of the city. Some months later, though, and suddenly there she was, being dragged into the compound kicking and screaming that she was supposed to be in the Game and calling for somebody named Ved. She had been very relieved to see him there, and he had done his best to help her adjust to a life in captivity. In turn, she had been a great support to him when the Technos found fault in everything he had been forced to make or program for them. She was the only person on the base who understood him, and she had said the same about him, the night they became more than friends.

He stopped gazing at her like an idiot and finally registered what she had said. 'Wait, Christmas?' he frowned. 'What are you talking about?'

She shook her head and laughed softly. 'How long have you been up here?' she asked. 'Have you even stopped to look outside?' She gestured to the row of windows along one of the walls, and he stood, leaving his imprint in the back and seat of the leather desk chair he had been sitting on, and went to stand by the window. Outside a thick blanket of snow covered the facility and the surrounding hillside. Most of the other residents of the base were out there too, rolling around in the snow or throwing snowballs at each other, or even just standing there watching. One boy was even blasting off snowmen's heads with an old Techno zapper.

'I can't remember the last time I saw snow,' he murmured. He felt Cloe's arm around his waist and realised she had joined him at the window.

'Me neither,' she agreed delightedly. 'They're saying it's Christmas.' He looked down at her and saw such an expression of joy on her face that he couldn't help himself; he bent towards her and kissed her.

'Well Merry Christmas, Cloe!' he laughed as he raised his head again. She giggled and threw her arms around him, burying her head in his chest.

'Merry Christmas, Jack,' her muffled voice replied, and she sighed contentedly.

Jack studied the rest of their companions outside while he held her. They certainly looked to be having fun, but here a young woman stood shivering, stamping her feet in the snow, while there a child rubbed hands red from the snowballs he had been handling. This weather would provide its own problems if it continued.

Cloe felt him tensing and pulled away. 'What's wrong?' she asked, looking concerned.

'All this snow,' he replied with a gesture. 'We'll have to make sure the heating systems are up to scratch.' Distracted, he moved away from Cloe, making his way to a set of plan chests on the other side of the room, opening and closing drawers and shuffling through the plans and diagrams of the layout of the compound. 'And we'll have to find all the water shutoff valves,' he continued. 'What if a pipe bursts and floods the place?'

'Then we'll skate down the hallways!' she laughed, twirling her way towards him as if gliding on ice. 'You worry too much, Jack.'

'I'm serious, Cloe!' he chided. 'A leak in the wrong place could frazzle the electrics, and we'd be even more cut off from the world than we are already! We'd never get in contact with the rest of the Mallrats!'

Cloe stopped, halfway towards him, folding her arms. There was no fondness in her eyes this time. 'Sometimes I think that's all you ever think about!' she snapped. 'You spend more time with that stupid radio than you do with me! Why are you in such a rush to go back? Is it really so bad here? Is my company that boring?'

Jack blinked, laughing nervously. 'Don't be silly, Cloe!' he replied. 'You know we can't stay here forever. And you'd be coming too. Wouldn't you?' He realised he was sounding more and more unsure as he went on, and forced his mouth to close.

Cloe narrowed her eyes at him, the atmosphere in the room seeming suddenly chillier than it looked outside. 'So I'm silly, am I?' she said frostily. Without waiting for a reply, she turned and stormed out of the room.

Jack sighed heavily. Why did girls always take the least important part of what you said and find the gravest insult in it? He had thought it was just Ellie, but Cloe was the same! Frowning, his eyes fell to the plan in his hands. Fortunately, there were some problems he could fix. Muttering to himself and scribbling annotations on the plan, he soon became absorbed in his work, forgetting Cloe and their argument altogether.

* * *

Sasha pulled his hood tighter around his face and shivered in his saddle. His horse whickered and shook its head, jingling the bells tied to the harness straps. The only other sound was the crunch of hooves breaking through fresh snow. There was a lot of it, this high up in the mountains, all unbroken apart from their own trail behind them, and more fell the higher they rode, making visibility poor.

Tai San shifted against his back, and her arms around his waist were a comforting presence. 'Not far now,' she murmured in his ear, and he turned around to smile at her.

It had been a chance encounter that had brought the pair together. He hadn't recognised her at first, not dressed as a Techno, but she had remembered him. They had both been travelling to the city; he had heard ever more terrible stories of what was happening there and, though he hadn't really thought of the Mallrats for some time before the rumours, was hoping to find reports that they were well. She had been secretive of her reasons at first, not fully trusting him, but after a while travelling together, her story came out, and it was the most terrible he had heard so far. A cold-hearted despot ruling in the city. Kidnapping and slavery on a massive scale. Turning friends against each other using cruel brainwashing techniques. He didn't think he would have believed it coming from anyone else, but Tai San had always had a calm about her, a self assurance and a way of grasping the important points of a matter in terms of people rather than politics that made him trust her absolutely; and those qualities were still there, but interwoven with a deep sense of weariness, loss and determination that rang so true with the incredible tale she was telling. He had become caught up in it all, caught up in her, and it was exhilarating. He thought he would do anything for this woman. He felt the drawstring bag hanging from his belt, checking it was still there, and smiled as its contents clinked metallically. They had spoken one night, camped beneath the stars at the side of the road, about fate, and whether a person's life was already written out fully, or whether someone could write their own destiny, and to what extent. Watching her eyes sparkle in the firelight, he had thought that if ever two people had been brought together, it was them. Pulling his hand away from the bag, he clutched his reins tightly. If only he could find the right moment to tell her.

'We're here!' Tai San exclaimed at last, sitting up straight and pointing ahead and to the left. He frowned, unable to see anything at first through the snow, then it appeared, a great white dome sitting atop the crest ahead of them like a giant snowball. They reached the foot of the building it thrust up from and dismounted, Tai San untying her small case of equipment from the saddle and slinging the strap across her shoulder as she trudged almost knee-deep in the snow towards the door.

'Where exactly are we?' he asked as he tied his horse to a rail nearby and caught up to her, dragging himself awkwardly through the freezing snow, teeth chattering. 'And what are you hoping to find?'

'Hope,' she replied simply, smiling at him, before continuing as if to herself. 'Eagle Mountain has always brought hope to the Mallrats, but can it give us what we need a third time?'

She pushed against the door with her shoulder but it was frozen stiff. He squeezed in beside her, her breath warming the back of his neck, and pushed alongside. After a few attempts, the door gave a groan and stuttered open in noisy stages. If anything it was colder in the dark hallway than it was outside, and a draught came from somewhere, making his wet trousers feel like ice against his shins. Tai San, determination strong on her face, appeared unaffected, pressing a button on her headset that shone a pale blue light ahead of them, partially illuminating the corridor, before striding out purposefully and taking the lead.

'Let's hurry,' she said. 'I don't have much battery power left in this thing.

Sasha hurried along in her wake, still unsure as to what she expected to find here. It certainly wasn't the Mallrats; this place hadn't been occupied in a long time, possibly since before the Virus, and some of the walls appeared to have suffered smoke damage, the worse the lower down she took him. Eventually she led him into a narrow room with a table in the centre filling most of the space. There were computers on that table, with wires leading off into power sockets or peripheral devices that Sasha couldn't even begin to describe. Large monitors covered the walls, as well as maps, some of which he didn't recognise. He tried flicking a light switch but nothing happened. He hadn't really expected it to.

'The fire gutted most of the basement, including the power generators,' Tai San mused, still half to herself. 'But the equipment in the observation rooms should still be in working order.' She set her equipment case down on the desk and opened it, lifting out a large black oblong box, which she connected with clips and wires to one of the computer towers. Hesitantly she pressed the computer's power button and gave a small sigh of relief when it lit up. He supposed the black box must be some kind of backup power supply. Tapping the power button on the monitor, however, Tai San made a frustrated noise. 'It's jammed,' she explained, then started searching amongst the junk on the desk. 'I thought I remembered…aha!' She pulled out a remote control, but of course its batteries were long since dead. 'Bear with me,' she said, plunging them into darkness as she turned off her head torch. He heard her remove the batteries and replace them in the remote control, then the monitor sprang into life, bathing them both in its soft glow. As if she had expected no less, and perhaps she hadn't, she began typing away on the keyboard, her fingers moving nimbly as screens appeared and disappeared on the monitor in rapid succession. Sasha was impressed, but slightly saddened. He didn't think she had been so proficient with computers before the Technos had her.

Abruptly she turned to face him. 'I've accessed the main communications link for the observatory,' she told him excitedly. 'And any satellites it's still in contact with. If the Mallrats are out there somewhere, I can find them.'

He smiled at her and put a hand on her shoulder. 'If anyone can do it,' he said encouragingly. 'It's you.'

She beamed up at him and his heart melted. Neither of them noticed the tiny device on the side of the monitor, which had begun to emit a flashing red light.

* * *

Cloe sat on the bed in the room she shared with Jack, irritably kicking her legs. It was quite a comfortable room, having previously belonged to one of the Techno commanders in charge of the base, but right now she paid no attention to the furnishings. Her mind was occupied with the spat she had just had with Jack, but it wasn't him she was irritated with; it was herself. She did want to find the rest of their tribe, more than anything. After all, who could want to stay somewhere that held such miserable memories? Not to mention where supplies were hard to come by. As much as she and Jack had formed a family of sorts with the other former Techno prisoners, it was the Mallrats who were their real family. But she was also afraid; afraid that if they managed to find their old friends – and they could be anywhere if rumours from the city were anything to go by – then she would lose Jack. Ellie would be with the Mallrats and the two had loved each other. Perhaps they still did. How could her own relationship with Jack, born amid the stresses and strains of captivity, possibly compare? She wasn't sure that she was ready to find out.

Hopping off the bed, she gathered her courage. None of that was Jack's fault; she would have to apologise. Leaving the room, she made her way back up to the communications tower where Jack spent most of his time. Her heeled boots echoed in the clinical corridors that hadn't lost an inch of their military feel, and she was glad when she reached the bottom of the staircase. The walls there were no less stark, but at least the ringing of her footsteps took on a faster pace as she trotted up the stairs, lessening the oppressive feel.

When she opened the door, Jack had abandoned the plans of the compound and was once more fiddling with the radio. He didn't even notice when she came to stand behind him at the desk, her footsteps masked by the sound of static from the speakers. Perhaps it was the snow, and all the talk of Christmas, but to her ears the faint sound of bells could be heard among the static.

'Jack?' she said, announcing her presence. He gave a jump and turned around.

'Cloe!' he spluttered. 'Listen, I'm sorry, I don't think you're silly at all.' He spoke in a rush, as if determined to get his apology in before she could say anything, but trailed off when she raised a hand gently to stop him.

'No Jack,' she said. 'I shouldn't have reacted like that. I do want to find a way home, back to the Mallrats. I'm just…frightened.'

'Frightened?' he frowned. 'Of the Mallrats?'

'No,' she replied. 'Not that. It's just that, we've been here so long now. If we ever manage to find the others, how will we fit in? It'll be so…different.' There was no need to mention Ellie specifically, not yet.

Jack stood up and clasped her hands together in his. 'I've worried about that too,' he admitted. 'But even if it is different, the two of us will still be the same. And whatever happens, there'll always be one other person who understands what either one of us has been through.'

She hugged him. What he said had been reassuring, but she didn't think he had fully understood her concerns. Or perhaps he had, and was just trying to let her down gently. Taken one way, he could have been saying that they would always be friends. She tried to work out the meaning of his words, but it was hard to concentrate with the noise of the static ringing in her ears. And it was ringing, she realised. She wasn't mistaken; there were definitely bells among the buzzing, and she said as much.

Jack frowned, bending closer to the speaker to listen. She thought he was going to dismiss what she had heard as a fancy, but suddenly he grinned widely. 'You're right, Cloe!' he said excitedly before becoming more serious. 'You might just have found our way out of here'. Donning a large pair of headphones, he carefully tuned the radio until the ringing of the bells was as clear as he could make it, before tapping the end of a stalk microphone and clearing his voice.

'Hello? Hello, is there anybody there?' he spoke urgently into the microphone. He waited for a reply, but none came. 'Is there anybody out there?' he tried again. 'If you can hear this message, please respond.' Again he waited.

A crackling appeared on the airwaves and the pair squeezed each other's hands tight in anticipation.

'Hello Jacky boy,' a familiar voice spoke at last. Cloe's heart sank.

* * *

Sasha didn't know exactly what Tai San was doing at the computer, but she was focussed intently on her work, barely looking up from the screen apart from to rub her eyes occasionally. He, on the other hand, found that he couldn't stop pacing the short width of the room. He was impatient, though not for her to find a signal; no, he knew that the discovery of this place might just have spelled the beginning of the end of their journey alone together, and he was trying to work up the nerve to say what he needed to say to her before that end became a reality.

'Sasha, you're ruining my concentration,' Tai San said, though not unkindly, turning around to address him. 'Whatever is the matter?'

He stopped, swallowing to wet a throat that suddenly seemed dry, but perhaps fate was handing this moment to him. Perhaps now was the time. Crossing the floor to her chair, he unfastened the small bag from his belt. 'I have something for you,' he said, pulling the drawstring open. 'A present, to show you how much I've valued this time we've spent together. I was looking for the right time to give it to you and, well, I think this is it.' He lifted out a delicate chain that glinted in the light of the monitor, a necklace ending in a pendant studded with tiny jewels, all nestled around a polished oval stone, shining green and with something in its structure that reflected the light along a vertical band inside it, resembling the pupil of a cat's eye. 'Maybe it will help you find what you're looking for,' he told her. Inside, he hoped that would be him.

Tai San accepted the gift wordlessly, holding it gently in one hand while tracing that dark band inside the stone with a finger. Her lips moved as if on the verge of forming words but for a long while, or what seemed like a long while, she was silent.

'This is a very powerful symbol,' she said at last, looking up at him. 'Thank you, Sasha. I think now is the perfect time.' She turned around to let him put the necklace on her. He fumbled a little with the clasp in his nervousness but eventually it was done.

'This means a lot to me, Sasha,' she said, turning to face him again. 'I won't forget this.' She kissed him then, a small peck on the cheek, and disappointment flared inside him. He had been hoping for so much more.

He opened his mouth to speak, to make clear his feelings for her, but at that moment the sound of a dialtone started ringing from the computer and a message box flashed red and green on the monitor.

'How…how can anyone know we're here?' he asked, nervously.

Tai San touched the pendant hanging from her neck and smiled. 'Perhaps it's working already,' she murmured, returning to her seat and accepting the transmission. He didn't have a clue what to expect when the video feed filled the screen, but a Techno in a Santa hat had surely been at the bottom of the list.

'Ho ho ho, neighbours!' the face chuckled smarmily.

Tai San wrinkled her mouth in distaste. 'Ram,' she spat accusingly. 'I should have guessed.'

'Nobody ever does,' he sighed, steepling his fingers. 'Aren't you going to ask me how I found you?' The man was clearly eager to impress them with his genius but Tai San just stared back expressionlessly. Disappointed but undeterred, Ram told them anyway.

'If I remember correctly,' he boasted. 'And I usually do. It should be just about…here.' He pointed somewhere off to his right. Sasha frowned, but Tai San's hand went immediately to the left of the computer screen, to touch a small black dome mounted on the monitor and flashing a tiny red light.

She turned to look at him apologetically. 'It didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary,' she explained.

Ram just laughed. 'That's the point, isn't it? People see but don't actually look; people hear but they don't listen. The best place to hide something is in plain sight, and I've made sure to hide a little something everywhere I've been.' Tai San whipped her head back to the screen angrily, braids flying, clearly unimpressed by his quasi-philosophy.

'What do you want from us?' she demanded.

'Me?' Ram exclaimed in surprise. 'Absolutely nothing! But I'm with an ungrateful bunch called the Mallrats, and they've given me a great big list of people they expect me to find.' It was his turn to look unimpressed. Tai San looked…excited.

'Anyway,' Ram continued. 'This time you can do something for me. It seems not everyone I've spoken to believes my honest intentions.'

Tai San sniffed. 'I can't think why,' she noted.

Ram grumbled under his breath, but didn't reply. 'Well,' he conceded. 'Perhaps they're not without cause, but you can explain to them for me. They'll believe you. Putting you through now.'

Nothing appeared to happen, but Ram waved his hand impatiently, motioning for her to start. 'Hello?' she said hesitantly.

'Tai San?!' a familiar voice replied. 'Tai San, is that you?'

'Jack!' she cried. 'Jack! Yes, it's me!'

'Tai San!' another voice chimed in. 'It's Cloe too! Is there anyone else with you?'

'No,' Tai San replied. 'None of the others, but I have Sasha here with me.'

'Hello Cloe, hello Jack,' he greeted, coming closer to stand behind Tai San's shoulder. He smiled, but sadly. It was good to know they were well, but already he was starting to feel like a spare part.

On the screen, Ram opened and closed his hand as if operating a mouth. 'Blah, blah, blah,' he sighed. 'Get on with it already!'

Greetings aside, it was time to get serious. 'Is Ram really telling the truth?' Cloe asked. 'Does he know where the others are?'

'Can we trust him?' Jack added.

Tai San paused for a moment before speaking. 'The last thing I heard from the city,' she said eventually. 'Was that Ram had helped the Mallrats to overthrow the rest of the Technos. As to whether he stayed with them afterwards, or if we can trust him, I don't know.'

'Hey!' Ram complained.

'Can I trust someone who made me into a Techno?' she replied calmly. 'Mega may have been worse but you started it all.'

Ram muttered something under his breath, then stood up – something Tai San seemed shocked by – and moved out of sight. 'Fine!' he grumbled. 'If you won't listen to me, maybe you'll listen to someone else.' The transmission fell silent, with only the view of Ram's empty desk remaining.

'I have to see this,' Jack announced excitedly, and his microphone clicked off too. Sasha smiled and put his hand on Tai San's shoulder. They were alone again.

'We're so close now,' she smiled up at him, patting his hand. 'I can feel it.'

Before long Ram returned, and with him came a stream of others. Some of them Sasha didn't know, but some he did, and one face in particular he knew all too well.

'Lex!' Tai San cried, pulling away from his hand as she pressed herself closer to the screen. The cat's eye pendant dangled in front of her. 'It's really you!'

'Tai San!' Lex replied. 'I've found you at last!'

Sasha sighed and took a step back. He really could see the end of their time together now, if there had ever been any doubt before. Even so, he knew that Tai San would ask for his help again to reach her friends, and he knew what his answer would be. He would do anything for her.

* * *

Cloe bounced on her toes excitedly as Jack finished connecting wires from the radio to his computer. 'Here we go!' he told her, sitting back down in his chair. He took a deep breath then turned on the power. A fuzzy image gradually cleared into a view of Ram's empty desk as Jack made some final adjustments, just in time to see a group of people gathering in front of it.

'You did it, Jack!' she gushed, giving his shoulder a squeeze.

'And it's them!' he laughed in reply. 'It's really them!'

'Do you believe me now?' Ram asked bitterly as he twisted the camera to look down the line of smiling Mallrats.

Abruptly Cloe noticed Ellie and removed her hand from Jack's shoulder, but just as quickly he grabbed it back, replacing it and holding it with his own. A burst of warmth rushed through her and she grinned, just as pleased to see him smiling back up at her.

'We're going home, Cloe!' he declared happily. 'Home for Christmas!'

'Together,' she added, placing her free hand on top of his and looking into his eyes.


End file.
